I'm navigating through this round world while living a square life, and it fits exactly as it should.

Rock and Roll Nashville–The Verdict

by Melanie Adams on April 24, 2014

Peeps, this post kind of kills me a little. If you will recall, a few weeks ago I posted about the decision I was trying to make regarding whether to do Rock and Roll Nashville or not. I got lots of great feedback, and y’all were so encouraging to me. I confess I did leave a pretty critical piece of information out of that post, the most important piece, in fact. So, here goes. I’m injured. I have been diagnosed with Insertional Achilles Tendonitis.

It’s just not in the cards for me this year.

This thing has been nagging me since last September. I have babied the heck out of it. I’ve rested plenty, even taking off completely since January. Truth is, I have been very fearful that it wasn’t gone, even with that much rest. I think deep down inside I knew there was still an issue that would show it’s ugly head as soon as my feet hit the pavement again, and that it did.

Now, I don’t really mind pushing through the pain. I know as runners, a few aches and pains along the way are going to happen. I also know that we have to be smart and listen to what our bodies are telling us. The pain got to a point that I would call excrutiating after a 4-miler. I knew I had to see a professional.

The good news is that after 6 weeks of physical therapy I’ve been cleared to resume my normal intensity again. The bad news is normal intensity does not equate to normal mileage. In fact, my therapist told me to not even think in terms of miles for a while, think time instead. How much time? Um, 20 minutes. So, yeah, a half at the moment is out.

There are so many things I hate about this. First of all, I have never missed a half that I was registered for, except for St. Jude, which was cancelled. Second, I really wanted to do the race. I know it was going to be fun! Just a few weeks ago, an announcement was made about a bonus medal St. Jude Heroes would get for raising at least $100 for Nashville and Memphis this year.

This would have been some nice bonus bling!

No bonus bling for me! Also, within the hour of my diagnosis I got an email announcing the line-up for the post-race concert. I can tell you, that didn’t help at all! Finally, not being able to run, not knowing when I’ll be able to distance train again, not knowing how to plan for the future, and not knowing how long it will take me to get back to where I was just plain sucks! I’m not going to lie. I’m cranky about it.

So, there ya have it! You can bet I’ll be finding alternate forms of working out so I don’t lose fitness while I’m rehabing. I’m not going to take this lying down, or even sitting down. I’ve been doing T25 for cross training, although I have to stick to the low impact modified moves so as not to put more stress on my Achilles. My next big event is in June so I’m keeping my eye on that one.

Good luck to all my runner friends this weekend! It looks like y’all have a nice day ahead of you. I really wish I could join you!